Hanna Park will soon welcome the addition of new botanical garden, named in memory of the former president of the North Carolina Extension Master Gardener Association, Dotty Leatherwood.
Shelby City Council approved the plans at its Oct. 6, meeting following a presentation by Charlie Holtzclaw, director of the city’s parks and recreation.
Holtzclaw said Greg Traywick, director of the NC Cooperative Extension, came to him at the beginning of the year with the idea of creating a botanical garden and after meeting with Traywick and several of the Master Gardener volunteers, they determined that Hanna Park, located on McBrayer Springs Road on the outskirts of Shelby, would be the ideal place.
Holtzclaw said the garden will be constructed on two acres of land next to the playground.
“There’s a void there which makes this fit very well,” he said. “Hanna Park is a beautiful park to begin with, and this is going to bring something to it that makes it even more special.”
He said the Master Gardeners created a care plan, which staff reviewed, and the project was unanimously approved by the parks and recreation advisory board in August before going to council.
Holtzclaw said Leatherwood who died in September 2021, was well known in healthcare, was an avid gardener, a proponent of life-long learning and was not only the first president of the Master Gardener Association, but was instrumental in getting it started.
The garden will be named the Dotty Leatherwood Botanical Gardens.
“It warms my heart because this is a very fitting and appropriate way to honor Dotty,” said Shelby Mayor Stan Anthony. “Dotty would be very honored to see this happen.”
In a phone interview, Holtzclaw said the garden is located near a waterline, which will allow for irrigation.
“We’re allowing them the space,” he said. “We’re going to allow free water and electricity. But they’re responsible for hiring someone to hook into the water and electric. They’ll pay for the entire project.”
He said work will be completed in phases, with the first phase planned to be underway this fall.
“This will be a one a kind botanical garden,” Holtzclaw said. “It’s got all the potential in the world.”
Traywick said plans for the garden date back to 2023 when they began discussing having a space where the Master Gardeners could provide hands-on teaching and gardening demonstrations.
They originally looked at creating it between the Legrand Center and the Bailey Center on the campus of Cleveland Community College, but Traywick said the site was steep and had some stormwater issues.
“We looked at alternative sites and settled on Hanna Park in Shelby,” he said. “It seemed to offer everything they were looking for. It had about two acres, was a highly public, visible location.”
Traywick said Michael Harden, owner of Paradise Landscaping, created a design for them.
Members of the Master Gardener’s Association also created a management plan to assure the city they were serious about carrying the project through and would keep it well maintained, functional and attractive.
He said the association has raised funds for the project and will begin the first phase this fall and winter.
“The first phase will be an arboretum,” Traywick said. “It will have a lot of native trees that reflect the trees in North Carolina, from the coast to the mountains. It will focus a lot on native plants.”
He said in one area of the garden, where stormwater runs through the space, they are going to create a water garden during phase two with water-loving plants that will attract wildlife and pollinators, filter the water and help with erosion.
In the third and final stage, they’ll add raised beds and conifers.
“Dotty Leatherwood was our first president, and had it not been for her, I’m not sure we would have a Master Gardener program here,” Traywick said. “She would stop by my office once a month and pester me to get it started.”
He said the program was launched in 2010 and has since grown to around 17 students and 65 certified volunteers.
Traywick said the space will eventually have a teaching gazebo centrally located, a simulated water feature that will look like a mountain stream, ADA compliant sidewalks to allow people in wheelchairs access to the garden.
Traywick said they are still raising funds for the project and if people are interested in contributing, or would like to know more about the plans, they can visit leatherwoodgarden.org.
Reach reporter Rebecca Sitzes at rsitzes@gannett.com.
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